Spring flings: Sox give Colon a look

Tuesday

Feb 26, 2008 at 2:00 AM

It's official. The Red Sox announced Monday they agreed to terms with right-hander Bartolo Colon on a minor league contract.

ROB DUCA

FORT MYERS, Fla. — It's official. The Red Sox announced yesterday they agreed to terms with right-hander Bartolo Colon on a minor league contract. The 34-year-old former Cy Young Award winner was also invited to the major league camp as a non-roster player. He's scheduled to arrive in Fort Myers today.

For the Red Sox, the signing offers minimal risk, with the potential for high reward. Published reports have Colon earning around $1 million if he makes the team.

When Colon was good, he was very good. He won the '05 American League Cy Young after going 21-8 with a 3.48 ERA and is 146-95 with a 4.10 ERA in his 11-year career. From '98 to '05, he won 135 games, second most in the majors behind Randy Johnson's 39.

But injuries derailed his career over the past two seasons, when he posted a combined 7-13 record. He made just 10 starts in 2006 and did not pitch after July 26 due to a rotator cuff injury.

He opened last season on the disabled list before being activated on April 21. After allowing one run in seven innings in a win over Seattle, he went 5-0, 3.69 over his first six starts. But he was 1-6, 9.26 over the next 10 before being disabled on July 24 with irritation in his right elbow. He was left off the Angels' postseason roster for their ALDS meeting against the Red Sox.

So the question is: In a best-case scenario, how much can he help the Red Sox?

"Best-case? Who knows?" manager Terry Francona said. "This kid's got a good history behind him as a major league pitcher. We'll just see how he is physically and we'll move on from there. The one thing we don't want to do is try to rush and set him back."

Colon hasn't pitched since throwing 4¤ innings in the Caribbean World Series on Feb. 6. But Epstein said he clocked 89 to 91 mph with his fastball and last September was hitting 94.

"We'll do an evaluation of how far away he is from helping us," Epstein said. "It takes more than five starting pitchers to get through a season. Obviously, he's an accomplished guy, and if we can get him back to a point where he's throwing well, he can help us at some point during the season."

Epstein wouldn't reveal a deadline or make a prediction.

"We know we might not be getting a guy who will go out and win a Cy Young Award as he's done in the past, but from what we saw in September, there's certainly enough to compete," he said.

"What we agreed was we'd just wait until we got him in camp, put our heads together, and outline a program that makes sense for him."

Colon, who has also battled weight problems throughout his career, is a reclamation project. But the Red Sox have historically had success picking up pitchers off the scrap heap, with one such gamble currently on the roster in Tim Wakefield. Another that worked out well was Bret Saberhagen. Conversely, Wade Miller didn't pan out.

The Poster Reclamation Project in franchise history was Luis Tiant. He won the 1968 Cy Young, but was out of baseball and considered washed up three years later. After being released by the Twins and Braves during the 1971 spring training, the Red Sox took a flyer on him. Tiant went on to win 122 games and record three 20-win seasons in a Boston uniform.

"Why not take a chance on (Colon)?" said Sean Casey, who came up through Cleveland's minor league system with the pitcher. "When he's healthy, he's got electric stuff. I don't know if he has the same stuff as he did then, but to take a chance on a guy like that is almost a no-brainer."

HURST ON CLEMENS: Bruce Hurst was asked yesterday about the steroid controversy swirling around Roger Clemens, his Red Sox teammate of four years from 1984 to 1988.

"I'll preface it by saying I love Roger. He's one of the greatest teammates I've ever had. I pull for him," he said. "He had a great impact on my career. You can honestly point to the day when he struck out 20 (in 1986) when we all began to have credibility as Red Sox pitchers.

"Before that, the stated line was the (Red Sox) haven't got pitching. That's when Oil Can (Boyd), Eck (Dennis Eckersley), myself, all of us began to have some credibility. So I have the highest regard for him.

"It's hard to say through this whole thing where the truth lies," said Hurst. "I'm here to stand by Roger. But when Andy Pettitte and all those guys give it so much credibility with accusations, it makes it difficult.

"It's painful for those who really care about him to sit and watch him, to know what kind of person he is, and know how hard he worked, and the effort he put into it, to sit there in front of Congress and have to defend those 25 years.

That was painful. It was hard to watch."

DID YOU KNOW? Bartolo Colon won more than 10 games in each of his first nine full seasons, but he has combined for only seven wins over the past two years.